People are always in search of new, simple ways to collaborate on projects. For example, businesses often gather their employees and colleagues for meetings, presentations, seminars, and the like. Often there is a desire for those gathered to simultaneously view or access the same digital content, such as data files or presentation materials. Some newer technologies support groups of people collaborating in such a manner. Some collaboration software enables individual users to join “collaboration sessions” in which each joined user can view the same presentation on a networked computing device. However, joining such a session can be a challenge for those that are not already connected to the network on which the session is occurring. Often there are both intentional and unintentional hurdles to connecting to a network.
Intentional hurdles may include a reluctance or outright opposition to providing users with information necessary to connect to the network. For instance, the user may not have an authorized account or the proper encryption codes to join an enterprise network. The host company or entity may not make such information available to temporary or visiting users, thus creating a barrier to network access.
Unintentional hurdles may include simply a user's lack of sufficient knowledge of how to make a network connection. For example, it is certainly true that even with the appropriate authentication or access information, many computer users still lack the skill necessary to connect a computing device to a network. Sometimes simply the fear of “messing something up” prevents ordinary computer users from attempting to alter their network settings.
A simple and intuitive mechanism for creating or joining a networked collaboration session has eluded those skilled in the art, until now.